Hailed as a “virtuoso, intensely soulful” by the New York Times and “spellbinding” by the New Yorker. Syrian-born, Brooklyn-based genre-bending composer, clarinetist and improvisor Kinan Azmeh has been touring the globe with great acclaim. He has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Barenboim, John McLaughlin, The New York Phailharmonic among others.
Kinan is the winner of Germany’s OpusKlassik Award in 2019 for his solo album Uneven Sky, and is featured on the Grammy winning album Sing Me Home by the Silkroad Ensemble in 2017.
He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, the Damascus High Institute of Music, and Damascus University’s School of Electrical Engineering, Kinan holds a doctorate in music from the City University of New York.
His opera, Songs For Days To Come, fully sung in Arabic, was premeired in Germany in June 2022 to a great success. Kinan serves on the United States National Council For the Arts.
Kinan’s performances this year are supported by a generous gift from Ed & Loretta Love.